Our Top-10 lists aim to represent a particular topic through the selected outstanding books, balancing classic texts and latest titles, popular books and less known must-reads. Here’s a selection on Theravada and General Buddhism from Watkins Books shelves:

1. A Still Forest Pool by Achaan Chah £15.50 (online £13.95)

Thai Buddhist master Achaan Chah’s insights – compiled here by Jack Kornfield and Paul Breiter – refelect the quiet, intensive, and joyous practice of the forest monks in Thailand and awaken the spirit of inquiry, wonderment, understanding and deep inner peace.

2. Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening by Stephen Batchelor £8.99

This lucid examination of the Buddha’s core teaching demystifies Buddhism by explaining, without jargon or obscure terminology, what awakening is and how to practise it.

3. In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Editor)£11.99 (online £10.79)

The renowned scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi here presents selected discourses of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, the earliest record of what the Buddha taught. Divided into ten thematic chapters, In the Buddha’s Words reveals the full scope of the Buddha’s discourses, from family life and marriage to renunciation and the path of insight. Taken as a whole, these texts bear eloquent testimony to the breadth and intelligence of the Buddha’s More >